Brighten up your drab kitchen with a bright, beautiful kitchen table makeover! The great part about updating your old furniture is that not only is it a lot a less expensive than buying new furniture, it’s also a great way to express your own personal style.

So if you want to experiment beyond the traditional kitchen table makeover, repainting your kitchen table with actual art gives it a wonderfully fresh update!

As my current kitchen is rather small and dark, even with a picture window, I was able to brighten up the entire room by just painting the top of my kitchen table in bright and sunny colors. Keep reading to see the transformation and to learn more about my process!

The Story Behind the Table

So basically I was starting with my husband’s hand-me-down kitchen table. It’s a basic black dinette table with a set of four chairs that barely squeezes into our eat-in kitchen. When we got married in May and I moved back to Roanoke and into my husband’s house, the finish on the table was already damaged. It no longer shined like the chairs and the rest of table and the finish looked “patchy.”

So last Wednesday afternoon, being somewhat burnt out with bath and body projects, I dug out my collection of craft paints I keep on hand for DIY craft nights and went to town. In retrospect, I probably should have primed the table first. But once I had started I wasn’t going back. Luckily the paint seems to have stuck rather well. Following is a photo retelling of my kitchen table makeover.

My Kitchen Table Makeover

Before the Makeover.

During the Makeover.

After the Kitchen Table Makeover.

Once I finished painting my table, I sealed it with multiple thin coats of a Devine Color by Valspar Clear Sealer Topcoat that I picked up at Target. (They do also sell a paint and primer that bonds to wood, metal, glass, plastic and other surfaces.) Its luxe glossy finish both seals and protects and I felt it also gave my finished kitchen table that extra pop.

Incidentally, the colors for my kitchen table makeover were inspired by a wax painting titled, Wanderer 2, that I purchased from my friend Hillary Hardison. Previously employed by our local art museum, the Taubman Museum of Art, Hillary has since ventured into self employment as a full time artist.

Additionally, she has plans for a once monthly paint night in the works for about half the price of established paint nights. The focus is less on structure and more about interacting and having fun while creating. (Kind of like my DIY crafts nights!) She will also be teaching structured three-hour art workshops on weekends if you’d like to learn a new skill.

Anyhow, if you’re thinking of repainting some of furniture in your home, be sure to check out this tutorial on how to paint furniture (the right way and not how Rebecca did it) at Centsational Style blog here before getting started. Not only does it cover proper priming, but there’s also information on sanding, filling holes and gouges, and choosing the right paint brush for the job.

And, if you do decide to makeover a piece of furniture in your home, I’d LOVE to see it! Simply share it with the hashtag #soapdelishowoff on instagram so I don’t miss it!

Our neighbors upstairs recently had to move out unexpectedly. One thing they didn’t take with them was a breakfast table and two chairs. So they gifted them to us. While I haven’t decided whether I’ll be keeping the chairs or not – I may paint the fabric seats – I thought the breakfast table was perfect for upcycling into a chalkboard game table!

Next I took Washi tape and applied it around the entire edge of the table top. Because Washi tape is more like a masking tape than a regular, super sticky tape, I highly recommend that you apply Matte Mod Podge to the edge of the table only, then adhere your tape to the edge of the table over top of the Mod Podge. Next, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge over top of your Washi tape trim. Once the Mod Podge dries completely, apply a Clear Matte Acrylic Sealer over top of the edge of the table so it covers the areas that you used Mod Podge on. (If you plan to use your Chalkboard Paint Game Table outdoors at all in a covered area, I recommend using Outdoor Mod Podge to adhere the trim for your table followed by a gloss sealer as this Mod Podge dries with a gloss finish.)

Finally, add a magnetic tin – that DIY is here – to the metal base of the table. Or, if the stand for your table is not metal, you can glue one on using Gorilla glue. Now you have a finished Chalkboard Paint Game table for kids and adults alike!

One final note. You will want to allow your chalkboard paint to dry for a full 24 hours before attempting to write on it. This allows it cure completely to avoid scratching the paint off with the chalk. After 24 hours you would then prep your chalkboard surface by rubbing the SIDE of a piece of chalk over the surface then erasing. Now your chalkboard table top is ready for games of tic-tac-toe, artwork, or whatever else the heart desires!

Want to brighten up your home for spring? You don’t need to give the rooms in your house a major facelift. Instead, try crafting a few new accessories that are both bright and beautiful to bring some cheer to dark corners and focal points. Not only are these projects easy, they are so beautiful your friends will think you bought these awesome accessories rather than crafting them yourself! Following are ten simple ways to update your home decor.

If you’re crafty with clay, use some lightweight stone clay to update an old, boring vase with petal flowers! You can go bold with a solid white finish, or paint the vase and flowers complimentary colors to match your existing decor. The tutorial can be found at Centsational Girl.

Update a boring, brown dresser by making it over in bright colors and patterns. This would look great in a bedroom or even in living room or dining room. Drawers don’t just have to be for clothes. They can also hold dvd’s or dishes and flatware! See how it was done at The Ridiculous Redhead.

For even more storage without comprising floor space, try crafting these fabric wall mounted bookshelves. Use bright colored fabric for spring and summer and change out the fabric for fall and winter. Or just switch it up whenever you want a fresh look! It’s great in practically any room. You can find the tutorial for this hanging book display at Penny Carnival.

Been trying to decide just how to display your favorite family photos? Paint wooden frames in bright colors rather than sticking to plain black, store bought styles and hang them in groups on empty walls. There are some great framing ideas at Small and Chic Home featuring frames from Organic Bloom that you can purchase if you’re unable to source wood frames with flair on your own.

Update your boring kitchen towels with some simple fabric embellishments using the tutorial at Hardly Housewives. They’ll look pretty even when they get left out and you can craft new colors for every season. You can also craft some colorful DIY tea towels from flour sacks and fabric markers using the tutorial at Skip to My Lou.

Or create a more drastic change to your kitchen by updating your kitchen cabinets. There are number of ways to do this from metal inserts to chalkboard paint. Better Homes & Gardens offers 25 simple ways to update your cabinets DIY style.

Changing out your light fixtures or updating your lighting with new accent lamps or chandeliers is another great way to add a small, decorative touch. These sculptural paper orb lights are made using coffee filters and cupcake liners. Find out how to make these decorative paper lanterns at Design Sponge.

Scott and I are just over a week living in the new apartment so I thought I’d share a few photos of the living room and bathroom. I still need shots of the bedrooms – one of which is empty expect for soap stock but will hopefully soon have a futon and dresser for Cody – and the foyer where I have my office. Yes, it’s that big. (You got to see the kitchen yesterday.) We’re still looking for suitable artwork for the empty wall in the living room. So if you have any suggestions of artwork or artists that fit, please let me know!

The bathroom. It’s not huge, but it’s functional. And it has a great electric heater built into the wall in addition to the radiator. So even when we’re saving money on gas by keeping the heat low, we can crank the electric heater so we’re toasty stepping in and out of the shower. I got the shower curtain, rugs and towels at Target.

Another angle of the bathroom. We’re thinking curtains at some point, though it’s a low priority because the front bedroom needs them much worse. The blinds are horrid, wrecked and filthy. Also, an interesting FYI, this bathroom used to be painted a Pepto-Bismol pink color. It wasn’t pretty.

A view of my living room from my bedroom. The kitchen is the door off to the right. (My baby Jasper is hanging out in the doorway. He’s such a spoiled mini doxie.) I LOVE the built in shelves in this room, so of course I’m using them to showcase a lot of my larger pottery pieces from local artists. I also have a few hand bound blank books on the top shelf that I use as albums for my ACEO’s. I have two albums for prints and two for originals. Now that I’ve dug them out of storage I hope to start collecting again!

A view of the living room from the hallway. The oil painting on the way is by a local artist, Scott Toobz Noel. I have another, much larger, painting of his in my bedroom.

And finally, a view of the living room from the kitchen. We have a closet (right corner) with shelving that we’re using as a bookshelf. We simply took off the closet door. We’re looking for a painting or print to put over the couch (to the left) in this room. And we still need to find curtains and maybe a few throw pillows. A dark red, maybe? What do you think?

Moving into a new place always requires a lot of work and a lot of love. But if you really want your place to shine – and not be just another renter – it also requires a little extra elbow grease. I like to treat every place I live or work as if it’s my own. Therefore it receives the same love and care. The one really big thing I want to put some work into first is our new kitchen. It was freshly painted before Scott and I moved in, but in a flat paint and nothing more. Therefore the grease over the stove has bled through the paint and it can’t be cleaned. The cabinets are also a very dull, non-exciting white, and overall the kitchen feels very bland to me. It lacks any kind of personality. My son, Cody, and I decided to start on a few things to give it a cheery makeover until we have more money. First on our to do list was to make a space for notes and honey-do lists for Scott. We decided to apply chalkboard paint to the two outer kitchen cabinets for a little pop and to make it more fun.

Here are the cabinets over the sink before we started. That’s my son, Cody, at the ready with a cordless drill.

Cody took the doors off the cabinets from the actual door. At first we tried to do it the “right” way and remove the hinges from both the cabinet and door, but as it turned out the hinges are attached pretty well to the cabinets courtesy of many layers of paint.

We laid newspaper outside on the back porch and Cody went over each door several times with nice, even layers of Kryon Chalkboard Paint. This was the right cabinet door.

And this was the second cabinet door. He did go back and do the sides as well.

Once the doors dried completely, Cody re-hung them.

After letting them dry for a good 24 hours, we then brightened them up with some chalk.

In the meantime, I’ve also started looking at paint colors to cover the grease in the kitchen and to add a little color while still keeping the space neutral.

These are the colors I have my eye on. (Check out the real deal in Lowe’s stores to get a better idea of the colors. Computer screens I have found vary greatly and even my computer screen doesn’t accurately portray these colors.) I’m thinking the tea stain in a good paint with primer for the walls – it’s only slightly lighter than the colors on the walls now – and the Grandma’s linen for the cabinet structure and remaining cabinet doors. I believe they will tie together beautifully and give the kitchen a little pop without going overboard since we’re renting. We’ve already started on some of the preliminary work. Cody spent much of Saturday pulling nails and screws, tracks that attach to nothing, hooks, etc. left in the walls – of which there were many! So now there’s just hole filler, paint and brushes and rollers to buy and a lot of work ahead!

I’ve also looked all over for spice racks and when I couldn’t find any locally I started pricing them online. I’ve had a love affair for magnetic spice racks for some time, however, I have read multiple complaints about the tins not sealing tightly. In the end I’ve decided to simply buy earth magnets and E6000 glue to adhere to the back of my existing spice containers which I will then store on the side of the fridge in arms’ reach of the stove. (I bought my magnets and glue from CandyTiles on etsy.) As my spice jars run empty I can refill them with bulk, organic herbs I’m able to buy at a discount from Mountain Rose Herbs. And for fun, I’ll decoupage my own hand designed labels to cover the existing herb jar labels. Which reminds me, I need to buy mod podge! I’ll post photos once I get that task completed!

In the meantime, here are some photos what our kitchen looks like one week after moving in.

We’ll be replacing the valances once we have the money and decide on the final wall color. That’s the pantry door to the right.

Another view. You can see there’s no light over the sink. I’m wondering if there’s a battery version we might be able to install there. And then you can see our kitchen radiator under the window.

The stove area along the same wall as the sink. Unfortunately there’s no exhaust vent either and in the winter it can be a tad too cold to open the windows. Any suggestions for options there? As you can see the fridge is right behind the stove so I think the side of the fridge is perfect for putting spices. I also have all handmade magnets on the fridge. There are several fortune cookies pinned to it. My two favorites are: “Happy event will take place shortly in your home.” and “Get your mind set…Confidence will lead you on.”

We have a dishwasher, which is amazing in a house over a hundred years old that’s also a rental. The little alcove behind it is a washer/dryer hook up area.

Does any have other suggestions for improving my kitchen? Thanks so much for taking this little journey with me.